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Monster Generator
Home>Tabletop Games>System-Agnostic So you need a monster to throw at your players. # Decide on the creature's native environment. Is it hot or cold? Aquatic, land, air, or vacuum? Safe, radioactive, or poisonous? Stable or moving between extremes? Also decide how many creatures you will be generating. # Roll or pick the creature's intelligence, social behavior, senses, manipulators, locomotion, and origin. # If the creature can form factions, roll or pick its cooperation level. If it has the highest result possible, reroll intelligence; the lowest result is the creature's individual intelligence, and the higher is the creature's hive intelligence. # Roll or pick feeding methods. If the creature has a feeding method with only one listed number, it is a predator. # Design the food web. If you rolled any predators, decide which other creatures they prey on. # Roll or pick defenses. # Roll or pick power sources for each defense and predation method, and one power source per extreme environment type. # Roll or pick survival adaptations for each extreme environment type, using the rolled power source. # Decide how the various adaptations fit together. If a creature has Anatomical Meta as a defense, does this manifest as a plague that spreads through predator populations or as a prime-number life cycle that leaves predators unable to adapt to hunting it? If it has partial autotroph and thick fur, does this manifest as hair made of pine needles or wool that generates energy from temperature differences? # Pick any traits compatible with the ones rolled that you think are thematic or cool, such as long necks, ritual behavior, extreme sexual dimorphism, or a non-survival-related elemental aspect. Intelligence One of the first things you need is how smart the monster is. Roll, or pick from the list. Social Behavior If more than one of the creature appears at once, how do they get along? Cooperation Level If the creatures cooperate with one another, what level of cooperation do they show? *A creature cannot have this level of cooperation if it does not have at least Lower Sapient intelligence. Feeding Methods How do the creatures get their food? * If Grazer or Scavenger is rolled, roll 1d6. On a 1-4, the creature is an autotroph and draws its nutrition from nonliving sources such as sunlight or sulfur compounds. On a 5, the creature is a detritovore and draws its nutrition from carrion and waste products; if it eats carrion, roll again for hunting methods. If Grazer is rolled, it has no way to produce its own carrion; if Scavenger is rolled again, it chases predators from their kills. On a 6, the creature is an herbivore and consumes non-creature autotrophs. ** If Farmer is rolled, roll 1d10. On a 1-5, the creature is an herbivore. On a 6, it is a detritovore. On a 7 or 8, it is an omnivore. On a 9, it is a carnivore. On a 10, it can be an autotroph if it has access to Technologial powers; otherwise, roll again. Defenses How do the creatures avoid being eaten or killed by its prey? Roll or choose 1d3 times. The d% rolls are based on the creature's predator's '''feeding methods. Special Traits What, if any, sources of special abilities does the creature have? *A creature cannot have Technological abilities if it does not have Artificial origin or both at least Higher Animal intelligence and a manipulator. Origin Where did the creature come from? Strange Traits Does the creature have any unusual traits that do not follow from those already rolled? Survival Adaptations How does the creature survive in its environment? Extreme Cold * '''Cold-Adapted Biochemistry: The creature contains compounds that prevent freezing. * Elemental Aspect: '''The creature is made of ice or has a supernatural connection to cold. Extreme Heat * '''Heat-Adapted Biochemistry: The creature's internal chemistry is resistant to heat. * Elemental Aspect: The creature is made of fire or heat, or has a supernatural connection to heat. Limited Oxygen * Medium-Efficient Respiration: The creature has gills or another method of absorbing oxygen from these specific surroundings. * Anaerobic Metabolism: The creature does not need oxygen. * Elemental Aspect: The creature is made of the same substance as its surroundings, or has a supernatural connection to an inanimate substance. Extreme Dryness * Water-Conserving Metabolism: The creature has a thick skin, "dry" biochemistry, or another way to ensure that it does not waste water. * Internal Water Reserve: The creature can store a large amount of water within itself for later use. * Elemental Aspect: The creature has a supernatural connection to dryness. Thin Food Web * Efficient Metabolism: The creature is able to get a lot of energy out of a little food. * Diverse Metabolism: The creature can consume just about anything. * Partial Autotroph: The creature can take care of its own energy needs without eating. * Cannibalistic: The creature consumes its own fallen. * Elemental Aspect: The creature has a supernatural connection to hunger. Toxic Atmosphere * Resistant Biochemistry: The creature uses minimal reactions affected by the poison. * Consumes Poison: The creature is able to digest or otherwise neutralize poisons. * Vents or Stores Poison: The creature isolates poisons from its vital functions. If the creature stores poison within itself, it should also have the poison defense. If it expels accumulated poison (such as in a venomous bite or miasmic cloud), it should have the disabler or ambusher predatory strategy or the counterattack defense. * Medical Knowledge: The creature can treat itself or others to reduce the effects of poison. * Elemental Aspect: The creature is made of the surrounding substance, or has a supernatural connection to poison. Extreme Radiation * Ablative Shell: The creature has skin that absorbs the effects of radiation and then is shed. * Medical Knowledge: The creature can treat itself or others to cure the effects of radiation. * Elemental Aspect: The creature is made of or has a supernatural connection to radiation. Opposite Extremes Cycle * Dual Phase Adaptations: The creature can switch between adaptations to both extremes. * Dual Life Cycle - K Type: The creature produces offspring adapted to the current extreme. * Dual Life Cycle - r Type: The creature produces a large number of offspring, about half of which are adapted to the current extreme. * Calibrated Life Cycle: The creature switches between adaptations during its life cycle. * Dual-Adapted: The creature's adaptations apply equally to both extremes. * Hibernation: The creature waits out one extreme. * Temperate Location: The creature has found a part of the area that does not experience both extremes. * Dual Elemental Aspect: The creature has composite elemental aspects. Bodily Traits Senses (Proximal) All creatures have all senses marked with an asterisk. If rerolled, the sense is particularly sensitive. * Homeostasis (Temperature): The creature can tell if it is too hot or too cold. * Homeostasis (Internal Chemistry): The creature can tell if it has been poisoned. * Homeostasis (Organ Conditions): The creature can tell if its internal organs have been damaged. * Proprioception: '''The creature is aware of its own position and movements. * '''Touch (Injury): The creature is aware of damage to its external surface. * Touch (Temperature): The creature is aware of how warm or cold things it touches are. * Touch (Pressure): The creature can tell if it is touching or pressing against things. * Touch (Texture): The creature can identify surface details of things it touches. * Taste (Poison): The creature can identify common poisons it consumes. * Taste (Nutrition): The creature can identify important nutrients it consumes. * Taste (Specific Chemical): The creature can identify a specific chemical it consumes. * Paranormal Sense - Touch Range: The creature gathers information about things it touches through a supernatural method, such as object reading or telepathy. Senses (Distal) For each sense rolled, roll 1d6. On a 1, the creature can naturally communicate through that sense. * Sight: The creature can perceive light in the chosen spectrum, in black and white. With Color Vision, the creature can distinguish frequency. With Infrared, the creature can see by heat. With Telescopic, the creature can make out details at a long distance. With Nondirectional, the creature has no blind spots. * Sound: The creature can perceive sound in the chosen spectrum. With Echolocation, the creature can distinguish objects without light. * Scent: The creature can identify certain chemicals, usually poisons or dangerous compounds. With Environmental Focus, the creature can track by scent. With Social Focus, the creature can identify emotions by smell. * Vibration: The creature can detect vibrations in an object it touches, allowing it to learn the locations of moving objects in contact with the same object. * Current Sense: The creature can detect currents in air or water, identifying creatures and objects in the same medium. * Electroreception: The creature can sense electromagnetic fields, allowing it to identify living creatures and electronic devices. * Paranormal Sense: The creature has a supernatural sense, such as clairvoyance or precognition. Manipulators * Legs or Arms: The creature has bony limbs extending from its main body. * Hands or Talons: The creature's appendages split into a dexterous ending. * Claws (Piercing): '''The creature can rake, slash, or climb with the ends of its appendages. * '''Claws (Grasping): The creature can grip and cut or crush with the ends of its appendages. * Tentacles: The creature has soft limbs extending from its main body. * Suckers: The creature can produce suction with its appendages. * Fluid Jet: The creature can take in fluid and produce a burst of force with it. * Chemical Jet: The creature can spray ink, corrosives, binary cements, or other chemicals or symbionts. * Surface Cilia: The creature can relocate objects that are touching its surface. * Paranormal Manipulation: The creature can move or alter objects by supernatural means, such as telekinesis or inherent magic. Locomotion * Sessile: '''The creature is rooted to one place or otherwise unable to move under its own power. * '''Brachiation: The creature moves using its manipulators. * Rolling: The creature rolls from place to place. * Slithering/Swimming: The creature moves by pushing against a fluid medium. * Biped: The creature has two legs. * Quadruped: The creature has four legs. * Polypod: The creature has six to ten legs. * Multipod: The creature has fifty to five hundred legs. * Fluid Jet: The creature can take in fluid and expel it to produce thrust. * Variable Density: The creature can expel light and heavy materials to change its density. * Wings: The creature can generate lift by the motion of air. * Wheels: The creature has wheels or tracks. * Paranormal Movement: '''The creature has a supernatural method of motion, such as levitation or teleportation. Upgrades Okay, we all know that you used this to generate a few 'mons. And where would a 'mons series be without evolution, combination, transcending, or some other means of changing one monster to another? If the creature has the '''calibrated life cycle adaptation, this is one way of changing it from one apparent kind to another. By exposing it to whatever effect causes it to change from one phase of its life cycle to another (whether time or an environmental effect), it changes from a creature adapted for one environment to one adapted for another. If the creature does not have a calibrated life cycle, roll 1d6 times on the following table.